I answered your question in a Tweet to respect those who worry about this thread being diverted from Twitter topics (despite doing a lot of diversion themselves):
Gonna reply to this here to see which "larger audience" wins.
You're still in Paul's club? Lucky.
@nohero: "This thread is about the Twitter*. Paul is Twitter."
I answered your question in a Tweet to respect those who worry about this thread being diverted from Twitter topics (despite doing a lot of diversion themselves):
Yes, people started discussing Elon Musk's businesses that aren't the Twitter. We're all trying to find the guy who did this.
He's got a clownish side,but he's got another side:
: Top EV company in world (including 35,000 super-charging stations in US). Launching semi-trucks Dec 1) : Leading solar panel/solar battery storage company for both industrial scale and private homes : Top space exploration company in world (does launches for NASA) : Satellite company (Starlink -- essential for Ukraine military) : Top underground high-speed rail company (Boring Company) : Neural-link company to address disabilities
The top underground high-speed rail company has not built any underground rail, let alone high-speed underground rail.
Twitter Blue's struggles since its launch nearly six months ago are more severe than previously revealed, new data suggests.
Since Musk's version of the subscription service launched last November, Twitter has only been able to convert around 640,000 Twitter users into paying Twitter Blue subscribers as of the end of April, as Mashable reported earlier this week.
While those numbers are lackluster, an even more telling detail about Twitter Blue is just how many of its earliest subscribers have canceled their subscriptions.
Out of about 150,000 early subscribers to Twitter Blue, just around 68,157 have stuck around and maintained a paid subscription as of April 30. Subscriptions are $8 per month – $11 on mobile.
The total early subscriber numbers are linked directly to internal leaks published(opens in a new tab) by the Washington Post last year showing that a total of 150,000 users originally signed up for Twitter Blue within just a few days of its launch in November. Twitter temporarily disabled new signups for about a month shortly after those users subscribed as a result of accounts signing up for Blue with the intent to impersonate major brands on the platform.
That means around 81,843 users, or 54.5 percent, of Twitter users who subscribed to Twitter Blue when it first launched in November are no longer subscribed to the service.
That's an abnormally high churn rate for an online subscription service.
I’m wondering what we, as participants in a wide-ranging discussion on Twitter, make of the finally-official admission that there was a ‘security incident’ opening closed confidential circles to unauthorised readers:
I've been seeing more buzz around Bluesky, the social media site by Jack Dorsey, one of Twitter's founders. I suspect it'll be what ends up replacing Twitter. And that will solve one problem -- a prominent social media site run by a reactionary billionaire -- at the cost of creating another problem -- a prominent social media site run by a billionaire. Don't know Dorsey's politics, but he's a billionaire... I'm sure they'll turn out to be about what one would expect.
Well, it'll at least be fun to watch the denouement of one particular billionaire's self-owning, before everyone moves on to the next privatized "public" square.
Dorsey seems pretty narcissistic too, but a bit more business savvy, and less likely to try to make fast money by testing if he can get away with pushing limits in gray areas of the law.
The great thing about Twitter being a private company is that it can choose which accounts it wants to ban, "shadowban", or boost and partner with, like Tucker Carlson. LMFAO
The great thing about Twitter being a private company is that it can choose which accounts it wants to ban, "shadowban", or boost and partner with, like Tucker Carlson. LMFAO
Twitter seems to be turning itself into some sort of right wing platform. My notifications are dominated by right wingers I don't follow. Ben Shapiro, Kari Lake, Benny Johnson, Lauren Boebert, etc. It's driving me away from even opening the app at this point.
Twitter seems to be turning itself into some sort of right wing platform. My notifications are dominated by right wingers I don't follow. Ben Shapiro, Kari Lake, Benny Johnson, Lauren Boebert, etc. It's driving me away from even opening the app at this point.
The Twitter isn't sentient. It's not "turning itself" into anything. It reflects the interests of its owner, whose actions show that platforming racism and misogyny is his "vision".
Twitter seems to be turning itself into some sort of right wing platform. My notifications are dominated by right wingers I don't follow. Ben Shapiro, Kari Lake, Benny Johnson, Lauren Boebert, etc. It's driving me away from even opening the app at this point.
Twitter seems to be turning itself into some sort of right wing platform. My notifications are dominated by right wingers I don't follow. Ben Shapiro, Kari Lake, Benny Johnson, Lauren Boebert, etc. It's driving me away from even opening the app at this point.
Twitter seems to be turning itself into some sort of right wing platform. My notifications are dominated by right wingers I don't follow. Ben Shapiro, Kari Lake, Benny Johnson, Lauren Boebert, etc. It's driving me away from even opening the app at this point.
Those are in your Notifications?
yup.
I thought notifications used to only come when people you followed tweeted. For example I used to get notified when nohero or Howie Rose tweeted. Not anymore. But if Benny Johnson has some idiotic new tweet, I find out about it.
Twitter seems to be turning itself into some sort of right wing platform. My notifications are dominated by right wingers I don't follow. Ben Shapiro, Kari Lake, Benny Johnson, Lauren Boebert, etc. It's driving me away from even opening the app at this point.
Those are in your Notifications?
yup.
I thought notifications used to only come when people you followed tweeted. For example I used to get notified when nohero or Howie Rose tweeted. Not anymore. But if Benny Johnson has some idiotic new tweet, I find out about it.
Jeez. I set mine up so I only get a notification if someone likes my tweet or responds to it. I'd go mental if my phone buzzed every time one of the 1270 accounts I follow posted something. But if you can handle it, go for it.
I thought notifications used to only come when people you followed tweeted. For example I used to get notified when nohero or Howie Rose tweeted. Not anymore. But if Benny Johnson has some idiotic new tweet, I find out about it.
Are you a glutton for punishment? You can switch that off.
Twitter seems to be turning itself into some sort of right wing platform. My notifications are dominated by right wingers I don't follow. Ben Shapiro, Kari Lake, Benny Johnson, Lauren Boebert, etc. It's driving me away from even opening the app at this point.
Those are in your Notifications?
yup.
I thought notifications used to only come when people you followed tweeted. For example I used to get notified when nohero or Howie Rose tweeted. Not anymore. But if Benny Johnson has some idiotic new tweet, I find out about it.
Jeez. I set mine up so I only get a notification if someone likes my tweet or responds to it. I'd go mental if my phone buzzed every time one of the 1270 accounts I follow posted something. But if you can handle it, go for it.
I don't have it set for notifications to pop on my phone. I just see the little red indicator that I have notifications when I open the app. Which is becoming less and less often.
I don't care much about Musk's politics but I will say my personal Twitter Ux has definitely gone downhill. Seems like a fair amount of people have bailed and there's nothing new in terms of content of functionality that has caught my interest in any way. I still like and use Twitter but its utility is down perhaps 20-25% vs. a year ago.
Dorsey seems pretty narcissistic too, but a bit more business savvy, and less likely to try to make fast money by testing if he can get away with pushing limits in gray areas of the law.
True, though "more business savvy" regarding social media compared to Musk seems a pretty low bar. It's not like Twitter was blowing anyone away with its business performance pre-Musk (which is why the $44b valuation Musk gave it was ludicrous. Post-Musk, even the $20bn valuation Musk is currently claiming is suspect).
Here's an example of a Dorsey decision that gives pause as to his business acumen:
Block facilitates payment processing and helps individuals transfer money electronically; it had never ventured into the music streaming industry and, at the time it acquired TIDAL, had no plans to do so. The idea for the acquisition came to Jack Dorsey—Block’s founder, CEO, and Chairman—when he was summering with Carter in the Hamptons. From his Hamptons retreat, Dorsey joined a videoconference meeting of Block’s board and proposed that Block acquire TIDAL. The board formed a transaction committee to consider the proposal.
It's a testament to how terrible Musk is at this that Dorsey looks good by comparison.
It's always interesting to actually see the details of what the super wealthy do. Some are competent. Some are not. They're just like anyone else -- except with oodles more money.
Signed up for Bluesky. Doresy has the old 'net ethos as opposed to whatever Elon randomly claims on any given day. Dorsey has $4 billion and hands-on coding abilities. Wonder how many will jump from Twitter to Bluesky leaving Twitter's team less able to respond to threats, bugs and developing new features? Obviously though, Dorsey's initial trust in Elon to be rational was not well placed.
He definitely seems to have a better product sense than Musk. I suppose I'm trying to argue two somewhat contradictory things:
- I think Twitter under Dorsey was a better product than Twitter under Musk, in that it did a better job giving more people something they wanted, and expect that Bluesky will also compare favorably
- I think Twitter as a social institution had some serious issues, which Musk has by and large made far worse, and which I'm damning Bluesky with faint praise by saying it'll be better than Musk Twitter.
Did your brain fall out of your head, Yglesias? The choice is have Twitter throttled in its entirety or limit access to some tweets. Which one do you want?
@nohero: "This thread is about the Twitter*. Paul is Twitter."
"the Twitter" is @nohero talk.
Me: Thank you.